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First Battle of Leningrad
Background As the Soviets were advancing in Europe, concentrating all their forces and sights to the capitalist pigdogs, the Empire of the Rising Sun saw their chance. Emperor Yoshiro ordered his secret army and newly-founded Shogunate to plan a campaign against the Soviets. Kenji Tenzai, one of the four shoguns and a member of Tenzai family (founders of the Tenzai Robotics which designed and built a significant part of Imperial Army) was the one who helped mastermind the Invasion of Russia. After months of preparations the Empire made their move and on New Years, began the invasion. After a week, Imperial forces under Kenji's command managed to reach to the borders of Leningrad. Soviet forces, surprised and unprepared, were soon driven back and Imperial forces took control over 60% of the city. The Soviet people vowed to defend the city at all cost and every remaining Barracks was filled with new Conscripts. Winter Palace One of Yoshiro's orders was to break the Soviet people’s will. The Imperial military’s objective: Destroy the Winter Palace, the place where the earlier Tzars once resided. Premier Cherdenko was very concerned about this building, so the 76th Rifle Division took the objective of defending the Winter Palace with pride. By garrisoning all nearby buildings, barricading the streets and by use of Combat Engineers to build bunkers anywhere possible, the 76th prepared for the onslaught. After one day of Imperial attacks on the defence line, Kenji, onboard the Shogun Battleship Mikoto, decided to bombard the Winter Palace, regardless of the cultural damage done. Natasha managed to paint the Mikoto for an airstrike but before the plane could destroy the ship, a squadron of Tengus shot it down. In an act of desperation, the Badger pilot tried to ram his stricken plane into the Shogun Battleship, damaging its 400mm guns. Kenji stopped the bombardment due to the risk of his weapons exploding. After three weeks of attacking Kenji halted this part of assault due to heavy losses of about 2,000 warriors. The Soviets lost 6,600 comrades, but defence of the Winter Palace revitalized the Soviets. Defence of the Fortress Elsewhere, however, the city was continuing to fall. By this time, the Soviet commander, Cima Len Davidova had rallied the city's forces with one objective; to defend the St. Peter and Paul Fortress on the island of Neva river. Premier Cherdenko dispatched Oleg Vodnik, a veteran of the European theatre, to aid Davidova. After several days hunting for enemy officers in the ruins surrounding the fortress, Natasha was finally cornered by a group of extremely angry Imperial Warriors, all of them with their katanas drawn. Natasha managed to hide from the platoon in the remains of an abandoned Bullfrog, and later launched herself to the relative safety of the Soviet Historic Tank Museum, south-east from the fortress, where Imperial troops were attempting to steal a massive JS-1 Elephant super-heavy tank, "Stalin's Vengeance", the vehicle credited with crippling the command tank of Field Marshal Rommel during the Second World War. Behind the walls of the fortress Davidova started reinforcing the defences with fresh Conscripts and Flak Troopers brought up from outside the city, the first relief forces in several days. Kenji ordered the the mecha brigades and the mechanised brigade to assault the fortress to stop Soviet forces from gathering, which resulted in the fresh Soviet forces being caught in a massive street battle before they made it to the safety of the walls. Finally, a daring group of Twinblades braved the firefight to ferry groups of soldiers into the fortress and hunt down exposed Imperial elements, eventually forcing the Imperial forces to concentrate on the fortress itself. Soviet turning-point After hours of pushing back Imperial attacks on the fortress, Colonel Vodnik arrived with the 35th Motor Rifle Division to relieve Davidova. Soviet tanks quickly proceeded to the river where Major Davidova launched her assault on the bank controlled by the Empire. Sickles were deployed to the narrowest point of the river before leaping across to begin their attack. Imperial soldiers were taken by surprise, and in the chaos all of the soldiers defending two major bridges were massacred. Meanwhile Bullfrogs from the 35th and Leningrad forces, full of Conscripts and Flak Troopers, drifted by the river and launched all infantry toward the harbor to assault the Imperial 3rd Infantry division. The Soviet infantry suffered heavy losses but eventually pulled through using sheer weight of numbers. Hammer Tanks with Sickle support soon arrived across the bridges previously secured, and began swarm both parts of the city under fire from Imperial mecha. The Shogun Battleship Mikoto, which had to take a different route to the battle, arrived and started firing on Soviet ground forces with its main guns, which had been repaired. Nearby Hammer tanks attempting to chase down a squadron of Tengu disengaged and attempted to fire on the Mikoto from the shore, to no effect. Natasha Volkova, the famed Soviet commando, managed to stealthily board a Naginata cruiser within range of the Shogun - unbeknown to the crew of the cruiser, she had perched herself on the roof of the bridge itself and began firing at the bridge crew of the Shogun Battleship. The Naginata's crew was holding a defensive position in the water, keeping watch for other watercraft; the only way they could have known about Natasha's presence would be if someone got out a radio message to them, and the crew of the Shogun Mikoto found it difficult to send a message out because using the radio required them to stand up and expose themselves to uncannily accurate sniper fire. Eventually the entire bridge crew of the Mikoto was killed by Natasha, either after standing up (trying to escape/be heroes) or simply from bullets ricocheting off of various surfaces in the bridge itself. Commander Kenji, stationed on the Mikoto, had set himself below decks to command the battle, but soon found himself unable to contact the very ship he was stationed in, any runners he sent unable to return. The only reason he survived when he went up to check on the bridge crew was that by some trick of fate, a Bullfrog transport strayed too close to the Naginata Natasha was sniping from just as Kenji came into view. The lurch from the ship caused her to miss her shot, and Kenji retreated to his command centre below to call for reinforcements. Natasha was forced to retreat as a squadron of Tengu made their way toward her. Unable to continue bombardment, Kenji called for a retreat and with the few crewmen left on the ship the Mikoto escaped with only minor damage. Most remaining Imperial troops survived; the Commander Davidova had given priority to Natasha's survival, calling back most Bullfrogs to defend her from aircraft fire, which allowed many of the mecha to escape to the air. Countless Sudden Transports had survived the initial invasion to help exfiltrate stranded infantry units, taking advantage of the chaos in the city to escape with their disguise system. Infantry that did not escape went into hiding from Soviet forces, waiting for the day their communicators will buzz and give them an order. Aftermath Kenji returned to the Floating Fortress in the Baltic Sea with the damaged Mikoto, one of two Shogun Battleships in the North Fleet, with most of its bridge crew killed. The price to retrain the crew was large. Kenji's hatred of Davidova was born, as was his promise to defeat the new commander. The Soviets celebrated their first great victory over the Empire as Cherdenko foretold, but the Soviet people's will cracked. A propaganda reel was made about the battle, titled The Shrike and the Thorn. Colonel Vodnik was promoted to Major General and transferred back to the European theatre, while Davidova was awarded a Medal of Valour and was then sent off to Vladivostok. Category:Battles